CMS Women's Water Polo Falls to UC Santa Barbara and Sonoma State on First Day of Convergence

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's water polo team fell 15-6 to Division I UC Santa Barbara and 10-7 to Division II Sonoma State on the first day of the Claremont Convergence on Friday afternoon at Axelrood Pool.

In the first game of the day, junior Amelia Ayala and sophomore Alex Szymczak each had two goals for the Athenas, while first-year Christina Kulick had a goal and an assist. Sarah Snyder led the way for UC Santa Barbara with six goals on eight shot attempts as the Gauchos jumped out to a 10-2 lead by halftime. 

Sophomore Ayla Huhn added a highlight for the Athenas with her second career goal in the fourth quarter, converting a 6-on-5 attempt. Her first goal was a year ago in a lopsided win over Caltech. 

The nightcap saw CMS fell behind 4-1 after the first quarter and try to battle back, but the Athenas were unable to dig all the way back out of the deficit. Ayala had four goals to pace the CMS offense, while Kulick and two and junior Chandlyr Denaro added one. Jordan Williams paced Sonoma State with five goals. 

Ayala scored her firt goal early in the second quarter to close to within 4-2, but the Seawolves scored the final three goals of the half to extend their lead to 7-2 at the break. Williams answered a goal from Ayala to account for all of the scoring in the third quarter, before the Athenas scored four times in the fourth quarter to try to make a game of it. Ayala's third made it a 9-5 game with 5:09 to play, but Annika Erickson answered for Sonoma State, and goals from Kulick and Ayala in the closing minutes made the final score 10-7. 

Sophomore Maddy Menard led CMS with three steals in the nightcap, while junior defender Anna Fry and sophomore goalie Jessica Salaz each had two. Salaz finished with seven saves while Brooke Sullivan had 11 for the Seawolves. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow for two more home games, taking on Cal Baptist at 11:30 a.m. and then closing out the tournament against Villanova at 3:15 p.m.